Screen layout changed

JMPpierwszy

I got some really weird bug in the game... Since a few months my main device for playing TSTO is a Samsung Galaxy S2 10 inch tablet. With screen resolution of 2048x1536 I was enjoying a nice view to a large segment of my Springfield, with discrete icons on the sides and the bottom. But I'm enjoying it no more - since a few days the game seemingly decided that my screen was much smaller and I needed much larger fonts, much larger icons, much larger pop-up windows, and much smaller segment of the map on screen. And I can find no way to convince it to go back to smaller everything. There was nothing changed in the setup of the device. No system updates. I have verified that the game still correctly recognises the screen resolution (screenshot does not show "big pixels"). I have tried to uninstall TSTO and install it back - that did not help either. It is bloody annoying. Even at maximal zoom out I see on my large screen just 3-4 buildings, where i used to see whole large sections of Springfield. The vertical bar on the left used to show up to six quest icons, now it shows maximum four. The XP bar almost touches the four icons at the bottom of the screen.

I have opened and issue with EA support, but they admitted that they have no idea and can't help. Does anybody know how does the game decide what font and icon size to use on a given device? Is there a setting somewhere that I could tweak?

Thanks for any help

PS: I thought about factory reset of the device, but restoring everything is a pain and I'm hesitant to do it, especially that i have no guarantee that it would fix the problem...

KrustyBrand

Users with Samsung devices have periodically reported a variety of problems involving the screen resolution. The problem can often be addressed by downloading the Samsung Game Tuner and using it set your game mode to “maximum quality”. Hope this helps.

JMPpierwszy

Thanks but... Found in the play store a Samsung app named "Game Tuner for Game Launcher" - I assume that is the one you are talking about. Unfortunately "This app is incompatible with all your devices"...

KrustyBrand

JMPpierwszy wrote: »

Thanks but... Found in the play store a Samsung app named "Game Tuner for Game Launcher" - I assume that is the one you are talking about. Unfortunately "This app is incompatible with all your devices"...

That’s the one and, yes, some users have recently noted that the developer hasn’t updated. I don’t recall offhand whether this issue is hardware dependent or a function of the operating system.

I know zip about the different Samsung devices, but check out the last post on this thread and see if it makes any sense:

https://forums.ea.com/en/discussion/91884/android-7-update-caused-zoom-issue-tried-game-tuner

JMPpierwszy

Thanks, but this does not help either... It is not clear if the original poster has found the resolution setting in the device setup or in the game tuner, but wherever it was - my tablet does not have it. In the display setting I have only standard Android N controls for "display size" and "font size" - and those have no effect on the game.

KrustyBrand

JMPpierwszy wrote: »

Thanks, but this does not help either... It is not clear if the original poster has found the resolution setting in the device setup or in the game tuner, but wherever it was - my tablet does not have it. In the display setting I have only standard Android N controls for "display size" and "font size" - and those have no effect on the game.

It was a device setting. If you don’t have anything comparable you may simply be out luck for the time being.

Muhsterino

There is a similar thread on EA answers, where the same advice was given as above. The community manager has posted, so it may be worth you commenting on there to try and resolve the problem.
http://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Simpsons-Tapped-Out/Problem-with-the-screen-resolution/td-p/6252966

KrustyBrand

I did a tiny bit of surfing on this issue and find that I was mistaken in one of my previous comments when I stated that Samsung has not recently updated the Tuner. In fact, it appears as if the most recent version appeared in August. The problem may be that the Tuner only supports a subset of Samsung’s devices.

Edit: I don’t personally recommend this, but I note that some users have reported successfully sideloading the Tuner APK on Samsung devices that are not officially supported.

JMPpierwszy

Thanks. I have raised the issue with Samsung tech support, will see what they have to say about it. There are also some third party apps in the Play store that claim they can tweak the screen resolution, but I'm somewhat reluctant to use them, especially that some explicitly warn about possibility of bricking the device.

KrustyBrand

JMPpierwszy wrote: »

Thanks. I have raised the issue with Samsung tech support, will see what they have to say about it. There are also some third party apps in the Play store that claim they can tweak the screen resolution, but I'm somewhat reluctant to use them, especially that some explicitly warn about possibility of bricking the device.

Good luck, @JMPpierwszy. If you happen upon a general solution to the problem, please report back here. As noted above, this issue seems to crop up on a semi-regular basis.

JMPpierwszy

Situation update: Samsung support suggested factory reset of the device. Which I eventually did. And it did not help. I can only suspect, that there is some hidden setting somewhere, which got restored from the backup. Maybe if I refused automatic restore and restored everything by hand (app by app, file by file, setting by setting) if would have helped, but I really don't feel like spending hours on that.

I'm wondering how does the game figure out the screen size and adjust its resolution. I'm no Android expert, but it is my understanding, that apps are supposed to use the screen size in "density independent pixels" to gauge the physical screen size. This is a parameter that I can tweak and I tried to increase it. Most apps have adjusted accordingly, but not TSTO. Well, actually the initial splash screen (the Fox/EA logo) was visibly smaller, but then the rest was just identical. So it must be something else it uses. Any Android expert around with some ideas?

marvin1826

As another sufferer of the same issue, I can't believe that EA or Samsung have not looked at this properly. There are millions of Tapped out players and millions of Samsung devices, so there are probably thousands of people suffering with this issue. The only thing that I can think of is that at about the same time as the issue appeared I did switch on 'multi window' in advanced options on my pad. My device, a Galaxy Tab S2 model SM-T813 is only about a month old too. The same option is enabled on my Samsung phone with no ill effects. I do hope this can be fixed.

KrustyBrand

marvin1826 wrote: »

As another sufferer of the same issue, I can't believe that EA or Samsung have not looked at this properly. There are millions of Tapped out players and millions of Samsung devices, so there are probably thousands of people suffering with this issue. The only thing that I can think of is that at about the same time as the issue appeared I did switch on 'multi window' in advanced options on my pad. My device, a Galaxy Tab S2 model SM-T813 is only about a month old too. The same option is enabled on my Samsung phone with no ill effects. I do hope this can be fixed.

There are a gazillion hardware platforms out there running TSTO. Broadly speaking, EA developers are targeting different operating systems rather than specific devices. I don’t often rush to the defense of EA, but in my view this is really more of a Samsung problem.

JMPpierwszy

KrustyBrand wrote: »

There are a gazillion hardware platforms out there running TSTO. Broadly speaking, EA developers are targeting different operating systems rather than specific devices. I don’t often rush to the defense of EA, but in my view this is really more of a Samsung problem.

An equally valid statement would be "Samsung offers a platform that can run gazillion of apps and games, and they are not there to ensure every single one works correctly. If one app is misbehaving, it is the developers problem". I don't have any problems with other apps that I use on the tablet, games or other. I have a problem specifically with TSTO.

That's why I also asked a very specific question: how does TSTO determine the actual, real screen size. "By the book" on Android it should be using the size in density independent pixels, but it apparently doesn't. If not that then what? Talking to Samsung would be easier if we had that piece of information, I could then ask directly "how can I adjust this parameter?".

marvin1826

There are not 'a gazillion platforms to run tapped out on, there are maybe 100 current models of phone and tablet on the planet. In any case if I was using this app on some random tablet that I got cheap from eBay made by someone I'd never heard of before then I probably wouldn't complain. However I'm using a Samsung...... how much more mainstream do you want. If this doesn't work on my tablet, then what DOES it work on.
The solution will almost certainly be EA changing the app in some way, none of my other apps or games are suffering with this.

KrustyBrand

JMPpierwszy wrote: »

KrustyBrand wrote: »

There are a gazillion hardware platforms out there running TSTO. Broadly speaking, EA developers are targeting different operating systems rather than specific devices. I don’t often rush to the defense of EA, but in my view this is really more of a Samsung problem.

An equally valid statement would be "Samsung offers a platform that can run gazillion of apps and games, and they are not there to ensure every single one works correctly. If one app is misbehaving, it is the developers problem". I don't have any problems with other apps that I use on the tablet, games or other. I have a problem specifically with TSTO.

That's why I also asked a very specific question: how does TSTO determine the actual, real screen size. "By the book" on Android it should be using the size in density independent pixels, but it apparently doesn't. If not that then what? Talking to Samsung would be easier if we had that piece of information, I could then ask directly "how can I adjust this parameter?".

Maybe, but it seems (more or less) clear to me that there’s just something quirky about Samsung hardware and/or software with respect to games (and not just TSTO); hence, the very existence of the Game Tuner. Even if I agreed with your stance that it’s EA’s responsibility to deal with the issue, I would feel compelled to point out that realistically it’s unlikely to happen. From their limited point of view, why spend time on a complex problem that is likely to suck up a lot of person hours and that only affects a tiny minority of users? Your question among how TSTO determines screen size seems a relevant one, but good luck ferreting out that level of detail from the developers. Historically (at least with respect to this game), EA has been consistently unforthcoming when it comes to imparting that level of detail. Not trying to be snarky here — I’m just not optimistic about the prospects for an EA-supplied solution. If it happens, I’ll cheerfully admit that I was wrong.

KrustyBrand

marvin1826 wrote: »

There are not 'a gazillion platforms to run tapped out on, there are maybe 100 current models of phone and tablet on the planet.

Hyperbole.

marvin1826

N.B. I'm a software developer for Windows platforms. Microsoft have a habit of breaking things that worked properly for years, and it's down to me to change my software to work correctly or work around a problem even if it is not of my making. Unfortunately I know very little about Android otherwise I might have been able to suggest solutions or offer something constructive.

virgochick603

I am having the same problem with my brand new Samsung s2 tablet. And it stinks because I love this game and have never had any issues with it on any other device. If anyone comes up with the magic answer please let me know!!

marvin1826

FIX FOR SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB S2 and probably others. Go to settings, lock screen and security, switch on unknown sources. Then go to http://mobile.softpedia.com/apk/game-tuner/3.2.02/#download and download and install Samsung game tuner. This is officially not compatible but will work just fine. Open it, go to modes, change to maximum quality, then save. Don't forget to switch off unknown sources afterwards.

JMPpierwszy

Sorry, I missed the answer... As much as I hate sideloading apps, I finally decided that no other solution was in sight and tried it. I can confirm, that it works, have the game in great resolution back. Thanks for the link. Still curious what parameters exactly it tweaks... Right now I don't find any other apps/games change their resolution after the modification.